News Corp breached by alleged Chinese hackers

Investigators believe News Corp’s “persistent Cyberattack” in January was caused by Chinese hackers. Hackers were able to access the email accounts and data of a “limited number” journalists in the breach.

News Corp disclosed the January breach on Friday in a financial filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The hack targeted one of the company's IT providers, and attackers were able to steal data, said the media conglomerate that houses the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

After discovering the attack on January 20, the news company informed U.S. law enforcement and hired cybersecurity firm Mandiant to investigate the hack. The investigation is still ongoing.

"Together with an outside cybersecurity firm, the Company is conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the activity to determine its nature, scope, duration, and impacts," News Corp said

“Mediant assesses that those behind this activity have a China nexus, and we believe they are likely involved in espionage activities to collect intelligence to benefit China's interests," said David Wong, vice president of consulting at Mandiant.

"Our preliminary analysis indicates that foreign government involvement may be associated with this activity and that some data was taken," News Corp executives said.

News Corp believes the threat has been contained. However, “there is no assurance that cybersecurity threats or activity such as that discovered in January 2022 will not have a material adverse effect in the future,” said the filing.

“We will not tolerate attacks on our journalism, nor will we be deterred from our reporting, which provides readers everywhere with the news that matters,” News Corp Chief Technology Officer David Kline and Chief Information Security Officer Billy O’Brien wrote in an email to employees.